Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) is espousing the benefits of varied cybersecurity provisions he spearheaded that will be included in the recently passed infrastructure bill.
Officials indicated the Peters’ efforts would provide $1 billion to state, local, tribal and territorial governments as a means of deterring cyberattacks while also updating systems to protect data, information, and critical infrastructure.
“Increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks have a significant cost on the American people and our national security,” Peters, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said. “We need an all of government response to tackle this threat and the provisions I secured in this important bipartisan bill will help seal up network vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure companies and at all levels of government.”
Peters noted the allotment would additionally strengthen the nation’s real-time response to online assaults and enhance coordination across government to address this evolving threat.
“As Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, I’ll continue leading efforts to strengthen cybersecurity and hold foreign adversaries and criminal organizations accountable for targeting our networks,” he said.
Under Peters’ work, the office of the National Cyber Director (NCD) would be established, with $21 million earmarked to hire personnel to support the office’s cybersecurity mission. Additional protections against public water system attacks are included in the funding in consideration of potential hackers tampering with the nation’s water supply.